Release Process

This is the process to follow to make a new release. This should
really be automated someday, but releases are juuuust infrequent
enough that it’s less annoying to just do the work each time.

Check the issue tracker milestone

Are you actually ready to release? Check the milestone on github and
verify that all its issues are closed. If there are open issues,
you’ll have to either resolve them, or bump to the next version.

Finalize release notes

All release notes are always written on the master branch, and
copied into release branches in a later step. Point out all new
features and actions required by users. If there are very notable
bugfixes (e.g. security issues, long-term pain point resolved), point
those out as well.

Also update the documentation link so that the soon-to-be latest
release’s documentation link points to metallb.universe.tf, and the
previous releases point to vX.Y.Z--metallb.netlify.com, which is the
website pinned at that tagged release.

To get a list of contributors to the release, run git log
--format="%aN" <COMMIT>..HEAD | sort -u, where <COMMIT> is the
first commit after you branched the previous release. Also think about
whether there were significant contributions that weren’t in the form
of a commit, and include those people as well. It’s better to err on
the side of being too thankful!

Commit the finalized release notes.

Clean the working directory

The release script only works if the Git working directory is
completely clean: no pending modifications, no untracked files,
nothing. Make sure everything is clean, or run the release from a
fresh checkout.

The release script will abort if the working directory isn’t right.

Run the release script

Run make release VERSION=X.Y.Z. This will create the appropriate
branches, commits and tags in your local repository.

Push the new artifacts

Run git push --tags origin master vX.Y. This will push all pending
changes both in master and the release branch, as well as the new tag
for the release.

Protect the release branch (skip for patch releases)

For major and minor releases, the release script created a new vX.Y
branch. Go into github’s repository settings and mark the branch
protected, including from administrators, to guard against accidental
force pushes.

Create a new release on github

By default, new tags show up de-emphasized in the list of
releases. Create a new release attached to the tag you just
pushed. Make the description point to the release notes on the
website.

Wait for the image repositories to update

When you pushed, CircleCI kicked off a set of image builds for the new
tag. You need to wait for these images to be pushed live before
continuing, because the manifests for the new release point to image
tags that don’t exist until CircleCI makes them exist.

Check on Docker Hub for a vX.Y.Z tag on each image, or check on
CircleCI that the deploy has completed.

Update the official Helm chart

Clone https://github.com/kubernetes/charts , and overwrite the
stable/metallb directory with the contents of helm-chart from the
release branch. Send as a PR. In the meantime, bump the chart version
in master for the next time.

Repoint the live website

Move the live-website branch to the newly created tag with git
branch -f live-website vX.Y.Z, then force-push the branch with git
push -f origin live-website. This will trigger Netlify to
redeploy metallb.universe.tf with
updated documentation for the new version.

Brag about new release

Tweet, post to G+, slack, IRC, whatever. Make some noise, if it’s
worth making noise about!